


Be Careful What You Wish For

by MysteryTickingNoise



Category: CallMeKevin - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Big Nerds need to become survivalists REAL FAST, Gen, Hello Neighbor - Freeform, I wrote this in quarantine, Platonic Soulmates, They basically get stuck in some kind of dream world every night?, depression tw, happy ending? we'll see, not edited, video games - Freeform, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23432914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysteryTickingNoise/pseuds/MysteryTickingNoise
Summary: 'My life is boring,' She had said, 'I just want something interesting to happen once in a while.'She meant maybe getting to go to a concert, not whatever the hell this is.
Relationships: Call Me Kevin and OC, Kevin O'Reilly and OC
Comments: 5
Kudos: 23





	1. Boring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note to self, never trust a psychic.

Sadia Page is boring. She has a boring life.

No, not “Plain-Jane-Beautiful, gets everything she ever wants, Wattpad OC, boring.” Her life is almost exactly the same every day, has been for the past 4 years. If you asked her, she’ll say she doesn’t really mind. Boring is much better than the way her life was before. I’ll do us all a favor and skip the tragic backstory, it doesn’t really matter to this story, and Sadi would really prefer it if nobody ever heard it again.

Sadi’s life is boring, and she knows it’s her own fault. After all, she’s the one who dropped out of school once everything was over, who shut herself into her room and her own little world while the _real_ _world_ kept on turning without her. Because of this, she’ll say she doesn’t mind boring, but she’s lying. Truth is she’s tired. She’s tired of being lonely, and sad. And for the love of all that was holy, she was tired of being pitied.

All she wanted was to get some breakfast, but now she had to listen to her sister and her aunt talk on the phone about her like she wasn’t in the next room making eggs. “How is she feeling by the way?” Her aunt had asked. “Still sick, or…?”

“No, she’s been better for about a week” Her sister Jean answered as she finished off her own breakfast. “Still tired but, ya know. She always is.” She had muttered that last part, hoping Sadi hadn’t heard her. But she had.

Her aunt, unaware Jean had put her on speaker to eat, kept going. “How did she get strep throat in the first place? She doesn’t _go_ anywhere.”

Jean rolled her eyes, picking up the phone and her plate and coming into the kitchen to put her plate in the sink. “Well, she’s going to the college to get her GED. Probably got it there.” She tapped on Sadi’s shoulder and pointed to where she had spilled some of the eggs over.

“Oh, she’s actually doing that?” The sound of shock on the other end of the phone was infuriating. _‘I’m trying.’_ Sadi thought to herself. As bad as she felt she still had half a mind to go ahead and point out that even by doing nothing, her life was going much better than her cousins. But instead, she kept her mouth shut.

Her sister looked over at her, giving her an apologetic look. Sadia realized how she must’ve looked and snapped back into her role, shaking her head, putting on a cheesy smile and silently mocking her aunt. Jeanie laughed, relieved that her little sister wasn’t hurt, and walked away to continue her conversation. As soon as she was gone, the smile fell, and Sadi decided she’d much rather eat her food outside. Unfortunately, outside wasn’t much more peaceful, with cars lined up and down the street and groups of people flocking towards the park. She has completely forgotten the town had organized an annual festival for Halloween a few years ago. She had never bothered going. Who would go to a fair alone? But…she was trying to get out more, try new things. The park _was_ only 3 blocks away, and she loved Halloween.

After a few more minutes of going back and forth in her mind, she pushed herself to go in and get her wallet. Maybe it’d be dumb, but at least it’d be different, and she needed the fresh air. Once she got there, she just wandered around at first, tempted to stop at a few shops selling food and jewelry but decided against it. Instead, what caught her attention was a pretty whimsical tent tucked away behind a few games. When she got closer she saw the signs all around the tent.

**_“FIVE DOLLAR READING”_ **

**_“CAN MAKE DREAMS COME TRUE”_ **

**_“PSYCHIC - WITCH”_ **

Now, Sadi never really believed in psychics, (at least not the psychics you can find in tents in backward small towns, but she was curious about what kind of crap this person could come up with. She made her way to the tent, and the ‘Psychic’ called her in the moment she reached it. “Well, it’s about time.” The psychic said with a grin as she stepped in. He didn’t quite fit the old psychic stereotype being a man in his 30’s, with blue hair and a very unsettling vibe about him. He jutted out his hand, gesturing for her to pay. “I can’t do this for free now, come on.”

Something about the look in his eyes made her want to leave, but her feet stayed planted and she dug a 5 out of her wallet, handing it to him. “Okay, so now what-”

“Sit here.” He practically shoved her into a chair and slipped into the one across the table from her, stretched for a second, then reached out. “Your hand, if you wouldn’t mind my dear.”

She held out her hand, expecting him to grab it but instead he dropped some kind of crystal into it with an order to hold it. “What’s this?” She asked, with no answer. He grabbed what looked like rosewater and poured it onto the rock, putting a dash of salt on it as well. _‘What the hell?’_ She cringed at the feeling of her soggy sweater sleeve, but kept her hand out anyway, watching in confusion as he moved the rock to the table and placed a crystal glass over it. _‘He puts on a very good show, at least.’_

He put his hand over the cup and closed his eyes. “Alright, let’s see here Sadia….what are you here for today?” He asked, only to interrupt her when she opened her mouth to speak. “You want adventure, don’t we all? And…friendship?” He opened his eyes and looked at her, waiting.

She resisted the urge to lean in, she knew that trick and she had to remind herself that these were pretty generic answers. She was a shy girl and she stuck out a bit in town, of course she wanted adventure and friends. “Anything else?”

“No.” He said with a chuckle, and the wolfish grin was back. The longer she spent in this tent, the more off he seemed...uncanny. She blamed bad lighting, forcing herself to stay in her seat and he turned around and begun digging through a cabinet. “I know exactly what you need.”

“What do you mean?” She wiped her hand off on her jeans, looking between him and the exit and waiting for him to say she could go.

“Didn’t you read the signs? ‘Can make dreams come true’? That’s exactly what I’m doing.” She heard him say something else about irony in her case but wasn’t able to make sense of it. He whipped around in his chair with a glass bottle in his hand, filled with a violet liquid. She barely caught it after he slid it across the table. “Bottoms up.”

She laughed, trying to pass it back. “No, thank you. Taking _magic potions_ from strangers isn’t my thing.”

“You want adventure, this is how you get it.” He said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back. He seemed to be very unamused by her comment. "This is how you change your life. You can pass it up like most, or you can take a chance."

She held the bottle up to the light of her phone, noting the iridescent sheen to it. “Can I take it home?” She asked. “Ya know, close to a phone and surrounded by loved ones?”

The man rolled his eyes and gestured for her to leave. “I’d prefer to keep my bottle, but if you’re going to insist.”

She quietly thanked him, tucking the bottle into her pocket and rushing out. She wandered around the festival for a good twenty minutes before she changed her mind. She assumed that if he would just let her go away with it, it probably wouldn’t hurt her, it was probably just part of the psychic gag. A placebo to trick her into thinking something happened. She opened up the bottle and dashed a little on her finger to taste it. ‘ _Oh for god's sake, it’s just Sprite. Purple Sprite.’_ She chuckled to her self and finished the bottle on her way back to the tent, or where the tent used to be, because it was gone. She could’ve sworn it was right behind the milk bottle game, but the grass was completely intact. She looked everywhere for the tent, and even tried to flag down somebody who worked there, but was completely ignored. She eventually changed her plan to recycling it, but couldn’t find a bin. “Oh, screw it.” She muttered to herself, tucking it into her pocket. “I’ll just put something in it, maybe put it on a shelf.”

The rest of Sadi’s day was dull, she was already exhausted and more than happy to shut herself into her room and watch TV until it was reasonable to go to sleep. Her siblings left her alone, as usual, and at one point she thought she heard them go out to get something to eat. As soon as the sun was down she was crawling into her mountain of blankets, cursing herself for being the way that she was, mentally listing off all the things she could’ve gotten done until she fell asleep.

But it was a pretty good sleep until the car hit some kind of bump and woke her up.

_‘Wait a second, I’m in a car?’_

She opened her eyes in a bit of a panic, looking around. She was definitely in a car, but it didn’t hit a bump, it had swerved and the person beside her had his eyes glued to the road, looking just as panicked as she was. He pulled over for a second, looking around. She took a second to do the same, noting how off-putting the world seemed to be. It was far too _bright_ , and the objects around them were _just slightly_ proportioned wrong. _‘Oh, I have to be dreaming.’_ She thought, _‘This is…REALLY vivid.’_ She looked over at the man next to her, then at the GPS between them. She had been lucid dreaming since she was a kid, and she still had no idea what she was supposed to say to the characters that appeared in her dreams. “…What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing, I just…zoned out for a second.” He seemed to shake himself out of whatever daze he was in and pulled the car back onto the road. You could’ve cut the tension with a knife, and Sadi was extremely grateful when they reached their destination. It was a small house, with a boarded-up door and windows. “What the hell is going on?” He muttered to himself as he got out of the car. He seemed as lost as she was, as she searched her mind for some kind of explanation as to what this dream was even about.

Once she was out of the car, she finally saw the ‘Sold’ sign by the porch and the boxes in the trunk. _‘Jesus I’m blind.’_ She scoffed at herself, going to look through the trunk for some tools. As weird as this was, she was happy to just go with it until some asshole with a leaf blower woke her up. “Can you help me out please?” She called over, halfway into the back of the car. When she got no answer, she glanced over. “Dude?”

“One sec…” He was standing at the edge of the road, staring out at the house across from them. A little creeped out, she decided to keep doing her own thing, digging a hammer out of a toolbag in the back. She didn’t notice him finally walking up, practically jumping out of her skin when he spoke up. “Here, I can get those nails- sorry.”

She smiled and shook her head. “I’m just jumpy. Thanks.” She passed the hammer to him and shifted awkwardly as he took another way-too-long look at the house across the street before getting to work. It took her a minute to realize that he had just left her with all the heavy lifting. _‘Fucker.’_

It didn’t take them that long to move everything in once they got the boards off, and the place was dusty but nice. The longer this went on though, the more uneasy everything got. Sadi’s dreams were never seemed to drag on this long and she was just waiting for something to happen. Dream dude had pretty much disappeared into the bedroom once he got the window cleared. She was almost completely done unpacking when he rushed out muttering under his breath. “Feck, no, please no. This isn’t happening.” There was a knock at the door, and he sprinted over to lock it before she could reach over, stepping in front of her. “We are NOT answering that door.”

“Why not?” She asked, eyebrow raised.

“Just trust me.” He turned around and looked through the peep-hole until she nudged him out of the way. After she saw nothing to be afraid of, she opened the door despite his protests.

A mustachioed older man in a sweater vest greeted the both of them with a wicked smile. “Hello, neighbors.” He held out a foil-wrapped plate to her. “I saw you two moving in a couple of hours ago and thought somebody should welcome you to the neighborhood.”

“Thank you, that’s so sweet.” She said, taking the plate politely and welcoming him inside.

“No, no, that’s alright. I have a uh…a project I need to get back to. But I wanted to say hello.” He tipped his head to her, backing towards the stairs. “You probably won’t get many other visitors, folks around here tend to mind their own business….”

“Right, yeah, well we’re really busy. Have a nice night!” Dream dude practically tripped over his words as he pushed Sadi back to shut the door in the neighbor's face. The next thing he did was grab the plate out of her hands and throw it into the trash. “You really don’t want to eat those.” He then vanished back into the bedroom long before she could collect herself and give him a piece of her mind.

 _‘On second thought, leaf blower guy can show up any minute now.’_ She grumbled to herself and kept unpacking, not really sure what else to do. When she was done, she was fed up enough to go into the bedroom, greeted by the sight of dream dude watching out the window with a baseball bat in his hands. “Alright, that’s it.” She stomped over and closed the curtains. “What the hell is your deal??”

He looked at poor Sadi like _she_ was the crazy one. “Did you not see that guy?”

“Okay, he’s a little weird but come on, you were like this _before_ that.” She said, pulling the bat away.

He jumped up and ripped open the curtains, gesturing across the street. For the first time, she was realizing just how tall this guy was, and wondered for a moment if she should've been intimidated. “Look at that house! Tell me that’s not weird!”

She sighed and looked it over through the window. “Okay, it looks like a wonky Sims build. Trust me, buddy, this place doesn’t have much curb appeal either.”

“Trust _me_ , he’s nuts okay? And any minute now-”

“You are the only one acting crazy!” She said, spinning around on her heel and marching back to the kitchen. Sure, he was driving her a little nuts, but things were just getting _interesting_. “I’ll show you, he’s not that bad.” She grabbed the thankfully empty trash and pulled that plate out, tossing the foil and cookies back in.

He watched in shock and confusion as she did so, and as she proceeded to go outside. “No, no no no! You don’t want to go over there-” He desperately reached out to stop her as he chased the tiny speed-walking woman across the lawn, but got shrugged off. She was almost to the edge of the road when a blood-curdling scream stopped both of them in their tracks. She could just barely see her new neighbor through his windows, slamming a door on the source of the screams and locking it up. This time, as her roommate directed her back inside, she didn’t fight him off.

They both had the same idea now, rushing back to the bedroom window to watch out for the creepy man. “Alright…” She mumbled. “I think I’ve had enough of this, I want to wake up now.”

“What are you going on about?” He asked, not taking his eyes off the neighbor's house.

“This is turning into a nightmare, and I want to wake up.” She said, starting to get shaky.

Now he looked over, seeming even more panicked. “This is my dream…”

“Right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! First chapter! Everyone on the edges of their seats yet?  
> I didn't really find a place to slip it into the story, but this starts off in 2016.  
> Thanks for reading! Already working on chapter 2! :)


	2. Pinch Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still not able to wake up, Sadi and her roommate get a mysterious letter.

“This is getting way too weird,” He said, his face buried in his hands. “Way too meta.”

She nodded, pacing back and forth. “You’re telling me.” She had tried pinching herself a few times now in an attempt to wake up but all she got was a bruise. “Okay, if you’re real, how did you know what was going on over there?”

He sighed, running his hands through his hair in frustration. He looked as though he was debating talking to her at all. “Because I recognized the house, that guy is from a game I play.”

She was intrigued now, able to stop for a second. “A game?”

“It’s a horror game called ‘Hello Neighbor,’ you have to sneak around his house to figure out what he’s hiding.” He got up and gestured for her to come look out the window. “Look at him, the creepy bastard.”

It was hard to see through their window in the dark, but she could just make out what he was doing; boarding up the door he had locked the screams behind. He took a small break to step outside, and Sadi was very quickly pulled out of his line of sight. They sat there, pressed against the wall under the window for a few minutes praying that he didn’t see them staring. Dream dude was the first to work up any courage, crawling over to the light to turn it off before he peeked outside. “Is he still out there?” She asked, her voice shaking.

He shook his head but his face went pale quickly after. “Did you lock the front door behind you?”

“I don’t think so.” She forced herself to take a deep breath before slipping out of the bedroom to lock up the door. Thankful that nobody had come in, she stood up on her toes to look through the tiny window at the top of the door. The neighbor had come back into view, now fumbling with his television. “It’s okay, he didn’t see us.”

He followed her out and practically ran to turn the lamp off. “In the game, he doesn’t go after you until he sees you on his property…But there’s also only one player, and he never talks to you in the beginning, so everything’s already a little bit different.”

Sadia nodded, peeking out the window again. “So what do we do?”

“What do you mean?” He asked as he dragged a chair over and propped it up under the door handle.

“How do we help them?”

He scoffed, securing the chair and going to each window to lock them up as well. “We’re not doing anything. There’s nobody to help anyway, I’ve finished the game and it’s just an empty cupboard.”

“You literally _just_ said that everything’s different, so there could be somebody in there now. We have to at least check.”

“Yeah, okay, you have fun with that.” He mumbled under his breath, sitting by the window with his bat.

She was this close to raising her voice, but she saw the way he was shaking, he was just as freaked as she was. “I’ve never even heard of this before, I don’t know how.”

“You said you think this is just a weird dream right? Why do you want to go into that serial killer's house just to freak yourself out?” He made a good point, and she knew it. It unsettled her to do nothing after what she heard, but she knew things would be a lot easier if she woke herself up, instead of forcing this into becoming a nightmare. She spent so long _avoiding_ nightmares, going days without sleep because of that. Lucid or not, this dream was becoming a recipe for disaster, she didn’t need them to start up again.

She was still unsure how exactly to handle _him_. He said it was his dream, and obviously that made no sense, but would ignoring him be rude? Real or not, she was uncomfortable brushing him off, especially in a dream this vivid. “Have you ever heard the myth that if you fall asleep in a dream, you wake up?” She asked, and he nodded. “Maybe we should try that.”

He nodded again, though he seemed pretty doubtful. “It’s just that easy? Fall asleep?”

“Well, I don’t know, I’ve never tried it before. But I’m getting pretty sick of this.” There was a beat of awkward tension as they both looked back at the bed. She was the one who made the sacrifice, taking the top blanket and wrapping herself up on the couch. She felt like she had been lying there for hours. Turns out, it’s extremely hard to sleep when there’s a murder-mystery antagonist across the street. But eventually her eyes began to feel heavy, and she slipped away.

The next thing she knew, her shoulder was being shaken back and forth. “Hey, uh…miss? Wake up.”

She shrugged him away, pulling the blanket up to her nose. “It’s a holiday.”

“Dude, come on, please? I’m really starting to freak out.” He said, shaking her with a little more haste. She finally dragged herself out of her haze of exhaustion and turned around to the same wonky living room she had ‘gone to sleep’ in, next to the man she met before.

She sat up in a panic, her heart thudding in her chest. “What the hell?”

“Any chance you have a plan B?” He moved out of her way as she tossed the blanket off and stood up, walking to the window.

God, she wished she did. This was wrong, _very_ wrong. _‘Is this real? Is this some kind of joke?’_ It couldn’t be, too many things just hadn’t fit in with reality. And why would anyone bother? “No, I don’t...I don’t know what to do now.” She pinched her arm again, wincing at the pain. As she peeked out across the street, she saw the neighbor rinsing off his car, going about his business as if nothing had happened.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the mail truck pulling up, and a familiar blue-haired figure step out. The second it hit her where she’d seen him before, the pieces clicked in her head and she ripped the chair away from the door. Once the door had opened the truck had vanished, along with the psychic, but she kept going to the mailbox so she could get a good look down the road. _‘What is going on?’_ “Please stop doing that!” The guy hissed, after running after her. “What if he-”

She didn’t hear a word he said, instead talking over him. “Did you see him?”

He leaned over, following her gaze down the road. “See who?”

“The mailman.” She said. He was taken aback for a second, then shrugged to himself as he decided to test a theory. He opened up the mailbox and took out a powder blue envelope with violet ink scribbled on top.

_**To Kevin and Sadia “Roth”  
92 Crescent Avenue** _

Sadi looked back at him just in time to see how spooked he got at the odd colors. The neighbor's intense stare quickly reminded both of them that they were probably 20 feet away from certain death, and they didn’t say another word to each other until they were safe inside. “Are you visiting Cork, like in the real world?” He asked as he tore open the letter.

“Ireland? No, I wish.” She leaned over to try and read the letter with him, thankful when he noticed and lowered it.

_**“Kevin and Sadia,  
I’m sorry, but it won’t be that easy.  
If you want to escape, you’re going to have to beat my game.  
It might even be fun, but don’t get caught!  
Best of luck,  
Valerian.”** _

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” The man, who she rightly assumed was Kevin, stared at the letter in shock.

She pushed down the queasy feeling in her stomach, hoping he was on the same page as she was. “What?”

“Valerian, that’s what my bartender called himself last night.” He said, dropping the letter on the coffee table.

“Blue hair? Kind of a spaz?” She wrung her hands as she asked him, thinking back to her awkward experience the day before.

A wave of relief washed over his face. “Yeah, you met him too?”

“He gave me psychic reading and a uh…potion.” Her eyes hit the ground as soon as the words left her mouth, mentally kicking herself for drinking it. _‘Just to give that jackass back his stupid bottle.’_

“…A potion?” He smirked a little, eyebrow raised.

“Yes, a _potion_! It’s Halloween, okay?” Her face was turning a deep red and she could feel it. “It was purple, like the ink. He give you anything like that?”

Now he looked as guilty as she did, shifting on his feet. “A cocktail, after we talked for a while he said some girl sent it over.” He shrugged. “I thought she was cute, I was trying to be nice.”

 _‘Still saner than my story.’_ “Alright, back on track, how _do_ we finish the game?”

He must’ve second-guessed himself a half a dozen times before he decided to go with it, she could see it on his face. “You… _We_ have to grab the key, pry the board off the door, and put in the passcode.”

“Okay, we have a hammer. Where are the key and the passcode?” She asked.

He kept going, albeit hesitantly. “Well, the key is on his coffee table…”

“Right by the door.” A smile broke out on her face, the wheels turning in her head as she was already cooking up a plan.

“But the passcode is on the wall in invisible ink.” He said with a sigh, running his hands over his face in frustration. “The light to see it is in his locked bedroom, on the other side of the house. Only way in is through the window.”

“…Great.” Her glee at how easy she thought this was going to be had been demolished with that last part. She shook herself out of it and went to the desk, grabbing a notepad and pen she had unpacked earlier. “Let's just map it out before we do anything.”

They sat down next to each other at the dining room table, and she flipped to the first clear page. “Are you an artist?”

“Not even close.” She sketched out the base of the house from a bird's eye view. Over the next few minutes, Kevin described the important parts of the house; the wall where the passcode was written, the bedroom window, and the big blockade in the backyard. He explained other aspects to the game too, while they talked. She didn’t know what freaked her out more, the thought of getting caught in one of the bear-traps or the chances that they would have to do all of this in one go.

They locked and blocked every way into the house except the front door, and shut off every light once the sun was down. Then the plan was in action. The neighbor didn’t see them creep across the street, too focused on his shows. They lingered under the window for a moment to listen for him, but all they heard was the wind in the trees and their own heartbeats thudding in their ears. “Alright,” He whispered, using a knife to pry the window open enough to push it up himself. “I’m going to hoist you up -as best I can- and you’re going to grab the light off the bedside table, and crawl right back out. Okay?”

She nodded, although she didn’t get what he meant by ‘as best I can’ until she was a fourth of the way through the window and doing most of the work to the beat of his thousand hushed apologies. Once she was in she had to crawl over the bed, an old mattress that creaked with every minuscule movement. All she could do was try her best to stay light on her feet and mouth a string of her favorite curse words. “Motherf- shit, _damn it_.” She was terrified now, and when she finally heard the footsteps coming down the hall she thought she might pass out.

She got down off the bed as quickly as she could, spinning around and shutting the window. She didn’t dare say a word even as Kevin noticed. “Sadie, what are you- _dude?_ ” She silently prayed he would get the hint and shut up while she straightened out the blankets, pushing herself under the bed just in time for the door to open and the light to flip on. She held her hand over her mouth, watching the neighbor walk over to the window, mumbling erratically to himself the whole way. He stood by for a second, and she could see his fists curled up by his sides. She kept waiting, but he never reacted. _‘He can’t see Kevin…Did he leave me?’_ His next move was quicker, to the wardrobe. After ripping it open to see nothing but his own clothes, he growled to himself and stormed out, slamming the door behind him. Sadi finally allowed herself to breathe, but she didn’t move until she heard him stomping around upstairs.

She scrambled to drag herself out from under the bed, finding the light in one of the drawers before looking out the window. Kevin _had_ left her, and she was officially panicking. _‘There goes the plan.’_ Somehow, she managed to keep herself from having a full-blown panic attack. She listened one last time to the footsteps upstairs and unlocked the bedroom door. Sadi knew how to sneak around a creaky house; grew up mastering it. She was able to zone in on each step she took, silently making it halfway across the house when Kevin turned the corner. He must’ve jumped a foot in the air and she was a fraction of a second away from screaming when he caught it, clasping his hand over her mouth. His voice was hardly audible when he asked; “Where is he?”

“Upstairs.” She whispered after pushing his hand away. Before he could ask the next question, she pulled the light out of her back pocket and showed it to him.

“Alright, we have one shot. Grab the password, I’ve got the board.” He nudged her over to the wall and speed-walked in the opposite direction. She couldn’t help but cringe at every squeaky floorboard he went over, having to force herself to turn away. The hallway was dark enough, she decided and turned on the little ultraviolet flashlight. The password was right where Kevin said, much to her relief. _‘4785…4785…4785…’_

She made her way back to Kevin, and they agreed not to put the passcode in until the board was off the door. He was almost done when a thought popped into her head. “By the way, it’s _Sah-dee,_ not _Say-dee_.”

“What?” He paused, glancing up at her.

She shrugged, wishing she had kept her mouth shut and looking down at the floor. “Just, I thought I heard you call me Sadie.”

“Oh, okay, sorry Sadi.” He gave her an apologetic smile before turning back to the door. A few moments later, he managed to wiggle the last two nails out and she muttered the password to herself as she typed it in. “Guess it did say the same…”

Sadia did a double-take the moment it clicked in her head what he meant. “You remembered it? I went through all that for nothing??”

“We had to be sure either way!” He hissed, not paying enough attention as he grabbed the key off the table and the remote fell to the floor, the sound bouncing off the walls. “…Fuck.”

The sound of footsteps upstairs was unmistakable, and as the neighbor bounded down the hallway Sadia rushed Kevin. “Come on, come on come on!”

“I’m going as fast as I can!” He shoved the key in the door and yanked her into the room with him as soon as it was open.

The room was empty, just like he had told her at the beginning of all this. The letter said they needed to finish the game, and they did technically, so… “Um…nothing’s happening.”

“I can see that!” He frantically slammed the door shut on the neighbor when he tried to pull it open. “What do we do now?!”

“I-I don’t know!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "He looked at me...and I looked at him....and he looked at me...AND I LOOKED-" -How I felt writing this chapter.


	3. Back to Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After getting into the locked room, Sadia begins to question her reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter is short, I'm taking couple days off from writing. Thank you for reading.

Sadia shot up in bed, sweaty and out of breath as she searched the room for any sign of Kevin or the man who had been seconds away from killing them both. It took a few moments for her to be awake enough to see that she was safe, in her own bedroom and tucked under a mountain of blankets. “It was just a dream.” She mumbled to herself, running her hands over her face. Everything was still blurry, but the LEDs in the corner of the room made it a lot easier to adjust to looking at her lit up phone.

**_4:47 AM_ **

She groaned, falling back onto her pillows. The college was closed, she could go back to bed for hours if she wanted to. She _really_ didn’t want to, not after that disaster. It still felt real, like a memory instead of a nightmare, and not a second of it was fading away. She laid there distracting herself with a couple of apps for almost a half-hour before her curiosity got the best of her and she drug herself over to her desk.

**_Google: Hello Neighbor Dec. 23, 2015 Helloneighborgame.com - Hello Neighbor - Stealth Horror Game_ **

**_Sep 29, 2016 youtube.com - Hello Neighbor Announcement Trailer -tinyBuildGAMES_ **

**_Oct 15, 2016 youtube.com - HEY MR. WILSON - jacksepticeye_ **

**_Oct 5, 2016 youtube.com - 10 Minute Pre-Alpha Gameplay, Unedited - tinyBuildGAMES_ **

There was a sinking feeling in her stomach as she stared at the results, trying to rack her brain as to where she had heard of it before last night. If the announcement trailer came out last month, maybe one of her siblings had told her about it and she didn’t remember. Maybe that MAGA asshole in class had explained it to one of his buddies and she blocked him out. She never played horror games, and couldn’t stand the feeling she got watching them either so… _obviously_ she made up the gameplay part. Right?

She clicked on the last link, leaning back to see what the game was _really_ like. It didn’t exactly make her feel better though, to see a much more cartoony version of that tiny bedroom from last night, and that awful wallpaper. Even the car they drove in, animated, but the same. Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest at the clang of the piano keys as the neighbor popped up on screen. The layout was exactly the same as the house they had sketched out together. The person playing wasn’t quite as organized as they were, but he seemed to follow the same steps. You wouldn’t want to get her started on how the giant neighbor reaching through the window was completely unnecessary.

 _‘I saw it somewhere, I had to. I got freaked out yesterday and had a bad dream.’_ She nodded to herself, closing her browser. She had to let it go, she had to go on with her day. It was Halloween, and she was going to enjoy it, damn it. After all, she had gone to every thrift shop in the town to put her costume together so she could wear something suited to Michigan weather, or at the very least _PG_.

So that’s what she did, tried to push the dream out of her head, dressed up as little red riding hood and passed out candy throughout the day. Her brother, of course, snapped at her over something stupid and she was able to let that stew in her brain for a while instead. All in all, it was alright, better once her family was gone and her last friend from high school showed up with brownie mix and a bottle of vodka.

“Little miss full-ride drinks birthday cake vodka?” Sadi had inquired with a smirk, already packing up the front porch.

Her friend took a swig, “I don’t think Little miss drop out gets to comment on my delinquency.” Glasses weren’t even a suggestion as she passed her the bottle, only for her to push it away.

“They’re gonna be back in a couple hours, Hanna.” She said, walking off to the kitchen to start the brownies.

Hanna chuckled, trailing right behind her.“And? You’re nineteen, what are they going to do, ground you?” She put the bottle on the counter and slowly nudged it forward, leading Sadi to give in and take a shot from the bottle. “Mwa ha ha, I have corrupted you.”

“Can you really call it corrupting if I’ve been drunk before?”

“Well, let's call it the first step of tonight's corruption.” She wiggled her eyebrows before taking the bottle back and leaving her on her own. “Step two put on a horror movie.” She called out from Sadi’s room.

“Oh, no Han, please I- uh…” She had to stop herself. Her and Han weren’t exactly close anymore. They only talked every month or two and it very rarely ended in them making plans like tonight. Sadi was constantly surprised she still bothered with her. _‘Whatever she wants.’_

Han peeked her head out, goofy grin on her face. “Why? Scared?”

“You know what, bring it on.” The movie was terrifying. Chills up your spine, build up the tension, never know when you’ll get spooked terrifying. This is why Sadi was grateful there was somebody out there who didn’t understand porch light etiquette and knocked on the door. “I got it!”

Imagine her surprise when she opened the door to another door, a cheap sign taped to it.

_**Knock for Candy!** _

She chuckled and leaned over to knock. The ‘door’ only opened a crack a hand came out with a small bag of candy. She was hesitant but took it. “Thanks man, happy Halloween.”

“…Happy Halloween.” The door backed away slowly, and she just shook her head and went back inside.“

“Who was it?” Han asked as she scooted over for her to get her spot back.

“Uh…reverse trick or treaters.” She held up the bag for her to see before she dug into it. “Reeses, Mounds, Tootsie Pop, what do you want?” As she dug through the bag she saw a slip of paper at the bottom, the size of a fortune.

“I’ll take the Reeses…What’s wrong?”

Sadi was staring down at the little slip of paper in between her fingers, two words in beautiful violet cursive writing.

**_Tutorial Complete_ **


	4. Don't Fall Asleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things have been going really well for Sadia, which is probably why she should've seen this coming.

She was supposed to be doing better.

She was trying to do better, with everything she had. So why her? This was one of a million questions Sadia had to ask herself. Along with, ‘How is this even happening?’ and ‘How do I stop it?’

It was possibly the worst possible time for her to fall back into old habits, keeping herself up with sims and loud music for nearly 26 hours, until she rested her eyes at her desk and woke up another 12 hours later in her bed. She didn’t dream though, not for a second, which was the whole point. She kept up with this pattern, taking some time off from school, completely forgetting she had scheduled her first test on the ninth. She was going to have to get her diploma after staying up 22 hours for the 4th time in a row or try to explain to everyone why she threw her voucher down the drain.

Whether it was luck or repressed knowledge, or that there was someone in a very high place that felt bad for her, she passed with flying colors. A fourth of the way to college. “Huh…” Was all she could muster up with a smile, staring down at the email with a dazed look. Had she been completely conscious, she would have been delighted, she probably would have jumped up and down and hugged the other person who took a test that day.

She was loopy when she got into her sister's car, she didn’t say much aside from her score, and went they got home she declined the offer to go out to lunch. She said she didn’t feel good, which was the truth. She felt like her head was ten pounds heavier and that if she ate she’d be sick; she just needed to crash. She was actually thinking maybe she could let her guard down, after all, once she woke up she had officially been dream-free for 10 days. The sun wasn’t even up yet, and she must’ve shuffled back and forth through the house quite a few times before she noticed the little sign on the table with her name in cartoon letters, pointed to a blue gift bag.

Her sister had gotten her a game she had her eye on. This time she _was_ awake enough to jump up and down, forgetting her breakfast burrito in the microwave and rushing to her room to get it installed. She giggled to herself when the music finally came on and the title card hit her screen.

 _‘Awesome’_ All her troubles faded away as she got into the zone, immediately immersed. She’d seen the game played a couple of times by then, of course, but playing it herself was something completely different. Naturally, she made a point to find and thank her sister when she heard people awake outside, but that was one of few times she left her room. She knew she’d probably regret finishing the game in one sitting, her back was already hurting from her awkward position by chapter 3 but she couldn’t be bothered.

Her Thursday was over and done within the blink of an eye, and it ended with tears as she fumbled over the last half hour of the game. One hot meal, and a way-too-long shower later and she finally decided to give herself a break and go to sleep at a decent time over the weekend.

It didn’t feel like she slept at all, or even had her eyes closed for more than a few seconds when she was rudely awakened but somebody shaking her gently. “Come on Sadia, the sun’s up. We have to start moving again.” A kind, but unfamiliar voice said quietly.

“Huh?” She sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She wasn’t in her bed, but laying on the ground, wrapped up in a baggy blue jacket instead of her mountain of blankets. As she looked around at the world and the people around her, she got that same uncanny feeling. Things weren’t _disproportionate_ per se, but looked very sharp, almost… _‘Like a comic book.’_ She should’ve recognized these three right off the bat. “Oh, come on, are you fucking kidding me??” She stood up with a huff.

The teacher gave her a stern look, handing her a bottle of water. “Language.”

The two teenagers behind him snickered to themselves, and one of them spoke up, crossing his arms in mock superiority. “Yeah, Sadi, _language._ ” He joked, ignoring the same look she had gotten moments earlier. “Waking up in the apocalypse is no excuse to lose your manners.”

“Oh, be quiet Travis.” He shook his head and began the hike, the boys following him a beat later. After an internal battle, she chugged down the water and caught up to them. They all kept joking around as they walked, talking about their old lives, people they used to know. Occasionally, there was a reference thrown out that she was supposed to get but didn’t. Or they would talk about somebody that she was supposed to know, but had never met. She mostly laughed along when she needed to but mentally she was tearing herself apart as her mind raced. _‘Where is Kevin? Was he just part of the tutorial? What happens if I get hurt here? What am I supposed to do now? I hate this.’_

She seemed to be the only one paying attention, she noticed; the only one looking for zombies- I’m sorry, walkers. _‘No wonder two of them get killed off five minutes in.’_ When it hit her that that would happen any minute now, she felt awful. They weren’t just drawings on a screen anymore, but people who considered her a friend. In this little alternate universe, they’d been helping her survive. She couldn’t just watch them die, she decided. She took a minute and made a plan to try and save them. After all, the first game didn’t follow all the rules, so who said this one has to follow the plot?

It seemed pretty simple, just stop Mr. Parker from stepping into the bear trap. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it as easy as it should've been. She tried her best to try and stay only a foot behind him, keeping an eye on the ground, but too often she was pulled away by one of the guys. Or he’d stop suddenly, and take a strange turn. Or their pace would get jacked up, and she’d have to watch her own footing for a moment. She was getting very strange looks, and they must’ve asked a thousand times if she was okay or if she was sure. Just as she whipped around to tell them that she _was_ sure, and to _please_ stop asking, she missed the very odd little pile of leaves on the ground.

The teacher's blood-curdling scream rang through the woods, causing the three teenagers to jump back. He went down fast, the bear-trap clinging onto his leg as he kept crying out in pain. She kneeled down next to him, trying to shush him as she looked for a way to get it off without the field amputation. Travis had jumped into action right alongside her, using his belt as a tourniquet. Ben did what Ben had done best throughout the game, looking around frantically while the others worked.

Eventually, the screams brought three familiar characters out of the woods. Travis and Ben jumped into their usual dialogue, and she let it play out, continuing to comfort the teacher. “These might be the same guys who raided our camp, and we barely got away from that!” Travis shouted at Ben.

Sadi spoke up, hoping she could still intervene and save at least one of them. “They’re not, let them through.”

“Shut up Sadi, my dad was special forces I know what I’m doing.” He glared at her and kept his protective stance over both of them.

She rolled her eyes and got up to push him away, which was far from difficult. “Trust me, _you don’t._ ” She turned to the protagonist Lee with a pleading look. “Please, just get him out before we’re swarmed.”

He moved forward without hesitation, nodding. “Get your friends back, I’ll do what I can. ”

She did just that, making a point not to look back, knowing exactly what would happen now that Mr. Parker's fate was in his hands. _‘Maybe there’s some way to help Katjaa, maybe if she has two hands-’_ She felt a wave of nausea come over her when she heard the ax at work, and even worse screams than before. This was a thousand times more gruesome than the game had been, and it was beginning to dawn on her that if she could feel the cold or the branches that had jumped up at her legs while they walked…

Mark hoisted the teacher over his shoulder and called for everyone to follow him as he took off into the woods. She almost did just that, before remembering what happened next. Hearing Ben call out for his friend to look behind his shoulder, she leaped into action and chose a large stick as her weapon of choice, yanking Travis back and smacking the closest walker as hard as she could. It didn’t stumble back very far, but Travis was still standing and she took his hand, pulling him along to catch up to the rest of the group.

The jump-cut had made it seem like the motel wasn’t very far at all, but it was at least 15 minutes sprinting. No way Mr. Parker was making it, she knew that halfway through, but Travis was still by her side so she was somewhat proud of herself. She had to remind herself that this wasn’t real, not technically. If she did what she was supposed to, she’d wake up and this world would fade away.

By the time they saw the sign sticking up through the trees, she was seeing stars and her lungs felt like they were on fire. She ran in with Ben and Travis before her legs gave out underneath her by the wall. The argument would end the same way, it wasn’t her problem, she couldn’t really hear them over her own heartbeat at the moment anyway. “Sadi? Are you okay?” She heard once of the boys ask.

She shook her head, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes as she began to catch her breath. “Oh dear god, it’s like gym class all over again.” She said, running her hand through her hair only to be stopped by a mess of leaves. “At least there’s no cute guys here this time…” Had she said that out loud? If she had seen the looks of offense on both their face, she would’ve known the answer was yes.

Someone suddenly broke off of the crowd and rushed over, pushing the guys out of the way to crouch down in front of her. “Move over, come on, _move_. Sadia?” The gentle Irish accent caught her attention and she looked up. Kevin let out a small laugh as their eyes met. “You have no idea how good it is to see you, I thought I was on my own this time!”


End file.
